ALLIANCE FINANCIAL GROUP Bhd took top honours at the sixth National Award for Management Accounting (NAfMA) 2009, beating six other companies to emerge as the ‘Excellence Award’ winner. In the small and medium enterprise (SME) category, Keu Control Engineering Sdn Bhd walked away with the ‘SME Star Award’. Presenting the awards was Minister of Finance II Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah. In his welcoming address, Yeo Tek Ling, Chairman of the NAfMA organising committee, congratulated all the participants. ‘As winners, your excellent management accounting practices have put you on a platform above your competitors.’ He went on to announce how this year, NAfMA made another change to its framework via the newly introduced ‘SME Star Award’, enabling SMEs to compete among themselves.

Datuk Bridget Lai, Group Chief Executive Officer, Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd and Director, Alliance Financial Group Bhd (AFG), said, ‘Winning the 2009 NAfMA award, is an acknowledgement of the management accounting practices and capabilities in AFG. It further endorses the fact that we are adhering to best practices which have made an impact in value creation and excellent business performance to all our stakeholders and customers. I sincerely believe that embracing best practices in management accounting will certainly encourage organisations to use the ‘best’ management tools and techniques to achieve superior value creation and business performance.’

Accepting the award for Keu Control Engineering was Jannis Tan, Executive Director, ‘An award such as this creates strong motivation to the workforce of the organisation. We will definitely participate next year and use this as a benchmark against our own capabilities,’ she said.

During the awards ceremony on Dec 8, 2009, six other companies received awards in different categories, namely, the ‘Best Practice Award’ and ‘Practice Solution Award’. Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd grabbed the ‘Best Practice Award’ in the public-listed category while Sime Darby Property Bhd won in the non-listed category. Century Software (M) Sdn Bhd won the ‘Best Practice Award’ in the SME category. Meanwhile, the ‘Practice Solution Award’ was won by Faber Medi-Serve Sdn Bhd in the non-listed category and under the SME category, the winner was TEX Cycle Sdn Bhd. Certificates of Merit were also presented to 12 other companies for commendable practices in management accounting.